Thank you for agreeing to take part in this project. Your input is important to us.
Before answering the questions on the form, please, give us some information about yourself. It is needed for statistics and will not take much time.
Please, look at the list of assertions and tick the ones, which in your opinion are right for Australia and its culture. Some assertions seem to be opposites, tick them both if you feel they can be true in different situations.
Here is a list of assertions about Australia that characterize the relations of people in different fields of life. Carefully read each assertion. If you agree with the assertion tick "Yes", if you disagree tick "No", if you are unsure of the answer tick "Don't know". If you have any additional comments to your answer or stories from own experience, please feel free to type them in the field provided.
Answering, please, be honest; there are no right or wrong answers in the form because every answer is only your personal experience or opinion. Enjoy it and you will find it informative, reflective and even comical.
1. In Australia every person is needed only in certain conditions and for concrete actions. They select friends for rest, friends for sport and friends of the family.
2. There is an unwritten rule in Australia: The end of work time means the end of talking about it. Therefore at dinner with family or at after work drinks don't even think about talking shop.
3. In Australia it is done between friends to kiss women on the cheek (or both cheeks), but between men it is done to shake hands. Men usually don't kiss each other.
4. You should not come late to any place in Australia. If you are late without a responsible reason, it's better not to come at all.
5. Australians have very little distance between personal and formal relations. They are formally polite and emotionally equal with everybody.
Please, let us know if you have noticed any other peculiarities of Australian culture in the field of friendship that have not been pointed out in the form.
1. As a rule in Australia, a qualified specialist with high intellectual potential will gain better professional positions. All levels of leadership and social hierarchy are open for them.
2. Main sense of life for an Australian worker is the organization (firm, company) they work for.
3. In Australia competition is one of the leading methods of motivation.
4. Australians think their own achievements are a product of their own efforts only.
5. There is an unwritten rule in Australia: The end of the working day means the end of talking about it. Therefore it would be inadvisable to discuss your job at after work drinks. Conversely one wouldn't take a conversation which started at the bar to work the next day.
6. In Australia people work hard to improve their status within a company. There the worker can be reprimanded if he performs his duty badly. Competition will lead to high productivity.
7. If you tell an Australian whom you work with that you know how to do his job better - you have made an enemy forever. Having a good intention will be quickly misinterpreted, as if saying he is professionally ineligible.
8. More than 20 tenses of English verb tell us about the importance of time in English language. They are at pains to plan activity, considering time for work and time for rest, caring for productivity and activity.
9. In Australia a smile is a required component of any service. If you don't smile you'll lose the customer or even be exempted from work.
10. Australians are punctual to such a level that the only nation to compare them with is the German people. It is better to arrange business meetings beforehand, as Australians are very punctual
11. In Australia there is high motivation towards achievement and much competition within a group.
12. In Australian schools, schoolchildren wishing to compete with each other will not help by whispering answers to tests.
13. Is cheating common in Australian schools and exams?
Please, let us know if you have noticed any other peculiarities of Australian culture in the field of business that have not been included in this form.
1. 1. It is astonishing that in Australia where common sociality is free from classes and other conventions, however equal rights for females have not yet been overcome. Australians love to have a heart-to-heart talk with new-comers, especially if they come into a bar to have a beer, but this is less likely to happen if you are female.
2. Winking to lady - even just for nothing, is deemed as bad manners in Australia.
3. In Australia people of the same sex prefer not to hold hands: someone nearby might think that they are homosexual. For the same reason people of the same sex dancing is impossible in Australia.
4. In Australia if people of different sexes hold hands, this is a neutral gesture that doesn't mean anything special. (Russian young people of different sexes hold hands mostly if they are in love)
5. In Australia men have to be prudent and very cautious in relationships with women. It is too easy for women to abuse legislation to protect the female side in the case of a family trial. Rather than trying to find the root of the conflict at home they prosecute men for domestic violence and can get good material profit after a divorce.
6. As a consequence of economical independence of women, men begin to get a secondary role in family and society.
7. As a rule most marriages in Australia are being made (according to religious thoughts) inside of the single ethnic groups which have their own secret secular rules, rituals and traditions. In such families (often Chinese, Mediterranean, Arabian) all conflicts are resolved within the family.
8. Australians who are not an immigrant of the first two generations often prefer international marriages (organized through international marriage agencies), choosing wives from countries with developing economies.
9. Australians prefer to marry or have relationships within their own ethnic groups. (Anglo-saxon, Polynesian, Asian, European etc.)
10. It is usually expected for the man to be the bread-winner and the woman to be the home-maker
Please, let us know if you have noticed any other peculiarities of Australian culture in the field of relations between sexes that has not been shown in this form.
1. It is difficult to astonish Australians with ranks and regalia's, so better not to try. You can easily approach any person in Australia even he has a high status, knowing that they will listen to you attentively and be ready to help.
2. It is not worth showing off your own high status. Here they don't like that.
3. It is useless to convince an official, who is acting with instruction, to change his decision without lawful basis. Fear of exposure (and penalty) is too strong for an official to bend the rules in light of circumstance or to consider bribes.
4. In Italy policemen might say to the owner of a wrongly parked car: "If your car will stay here I will fine you". In Australia in the same situation policeman will not talk to you. He will not even turn his head and will write a ticket silently while you are trying to explain 'that you parked only for a minute to buy cigarettes.'
5. At a bus stop, the driver will not wait for a passenger running late for the bus. Neither will he stop the bus to open the door even if it has only moved 5 meters.
6. If a person who does not have a special licence touches any of your home utility meters you will loose your right to house insurance and/or the right to further help with those utilities.
7. Australians can't touch a stranger's clothes and ask where it was bought and how much he paid for it. Only close friends can do this.
8. Staring at stranger or their belongings in Australia is considered unceremonious and rude.
9. An Australian who comes to a restaurant and sits down at the table deems it as his property and will be discontent if someone takes a seat at the same table.
10. Also he will be discontent if someone asks politely to sit near, even with communication an Australian will prefer that he is not near at all.
11. In Australia such behaviour when strangers go through the crowd with torso ahead is deemed as rude and aggressive. In the same situation Australians should push people aside with their hands.
12. In the consciences of the majority of Australians conceptions of "law" "morality", "fairness" are embraced in full.
13. In Australia they value law-abiding more than friendly reciprocal help. (For Example on the motorway in Russia if a car goes over the lawful speed limit, cars approaching the other way will wink their head-lights. Russian drivers react immediately: you need lower your speed because there is police control ahead of you. He slows to carefully pass the policeman and then will ride hell for leather to give the warning to drivers of other cars.) For a Russian this is natural expression of friendly solidarity and reciprocal support.
14. Bribes and exchanges of services with the aim of receiving some blessing (wealth) or to get promoted within a company are not possible in Australia. Law-obedience and high competition among citizens makes such exchanges senseless.
15. Australian culture is a primarily a beach culture, bare feet and sandals. Also, to wear shoes inside is normal for most of the population. The tradition of taking shoes off at the door is only for rich houses with expensive carpet where the host will politely warn visitors about it.
16. In Australia they value more individualism and have less of a tendency to befriend others. The people who usually talk on trains/trams are considered insane, so those who aren't insane won't talk to others either least they also be thought of as mad. Although at the same time, Australians can easily 'shoot the breeze' with a stranger or talk about the weather.
17. Expressing requests through straight and laconic phrases eg: "Open the window." can annoy Australians. Australians (as with everywhere in English-speaking world) tend to 'sugar down' their words, making the active (important) part of the sentence less obvious or confronting eg: "Could you open the window, please?".
Please, let us know if you have noticed any other peculiarities of Australian culture in the social field that have not been pointed out in the form.
1. Australians don't agree that parents of the groom become relatives of bride's parents after marriage."
2. In Australia all generations are independent from each other, grandparents live separately from their children and grandchildren. Young adults move away from home during their early 20's.
Please, answer the next questions connected to peculiarities of relations in Australian families between different generations.
· How do the majority of Australians (parents and children) spend their family leisure time?
· How do Australians relate to their elders?
· Do people give up their seats for old people on public transport?
· At what age are children considered to be grown up? What changes in the way their parents relate to them?
· How often do grandchildren see grandparents, communicate with them?
· How do grandparents and grandchildren spend time while meeting?
· What is the most popular method of upbringing in an Australian family?
· Which of the two spouses spends more time bringing up their children?
Thank you for your answers
